Alia Bhatt and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Gangubai Kathiawadi's trailer got a thunderous response from critics as well as fans. The film, also starring Ajay Devgn, Vijay Raaz, Seema Pahwa and Shantanu Maheshwari, will release on February 25. While people are going gaga over Alia's phenomenal act seen in the trailer, Gangubai's purported adopted son Babu Raoji Shah and granddaughter Bharti are not happy.
Shah, who had filed a petition against Gangubai Kathiawadi in 2021, told a Hindi publication, "My mother has been turned into a prostitute. People are now saying inexplicable things about my mother." For the unversed, after the petition was filed, a Mumbai court even summoned Bhansali and Alia. Later, the Bombay High Court refused to stay the release of the film and granted relief to the makers by announcing an interim stay on the criminal defamation proceedings against them.
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Narendra, the lawyer representing Gangubai's family, said, "The way Gangubai was portrayed is completely wrong and baseless. It is vulgar. You are representing a social activist as a prostitute. Which family would like it? You have made her [Gangubai] a vamp and lady don." Talking about the case filed by Shah, the lawyer stated, "The issue with our [legal] system here is that instead of doing something about the gross misrepresentation, you are asked to produce proof that the son is indeed Gangubai's son. Although we have proved it in court, there is no hearing in this matter now."
He added, "Our fight started in 2020 when his son [Babu Raoji Shah] came to know that a film was being made on the life of Gangubai after seeing the picture of his mother in the promo of the film. Since then, the family has been in hiding. They are shifting homes, moving to Andheri or Borivali. Many relatives have raised questions over the portrayal, asking the family if Gangubai was really a prostitute and not a social worker as they had said. The family's mental state is not good. No one is able to live in peace. We have sent notices to Sanjay Leela Bhansali (director) and Hussain Zaidi (writer of Mafia Queens of Mumbai: Stories of Women from the Ganglands, from where Gangubai Kathiawadi was adapted). However, there has been no response from them."
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Gangubai's granddaughter Bharti shared, "The makers have defamed my family out of greed for money. It cannot be accepted. You did not ask for the family's consent before going ahead with the project. You did not come to us while writing the book, nor did you seek our permission before making the film."
She elaborated, "My grandmother used to live in Kamathipura. So, did every woman living there become a prostitute? My grandmother had adopted four children there - two daughters, Shakuntala Ranjit Kawi (Bharti's mother) and Sushila Reddy, and two sons, Babu Raoji Shah and Rajinikanth Raoji Shah. We are from this family but now we've been termed 'illegal'. When our grandmother went through with the adoption, such strict adoption laws were not in place."
Bharti told, "We used to proudly narrate the stories of our grandmother. But, after the trailer was released, people have been calling to tell us how she is being portrayed as a prostitute. My grandmother has worked for the upliftment of the sex workers there throughout her life. What have these people turned my grandmother into."
(Source: Aaj Tak)
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